Undergraduate occupational and environmental health and safety programs at Utah State University, Brigham Young University, the University of Utah and Weber State University have formed a first-of-its-kind partnership to collectively promote their degrees and career opportunities.

The partnership's effort has included hosting informational sessions for prospective students featuring all four universities, a unified marketing campaign and collaborative management.

The occupational and environmental health and safety field focuses on protecting the health, safety and well-being of workers by identifying, assessing and managing workplace and environmental risks.

From 2018-2022, the most recent five-year data available from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, 257 people died in occupational fatalities in Utah and 161,400 people suffered workplace injuries

Reducing both numbers by producing well-trained graduates is a core objective of all four of the partner occupational and environmental health and safety programs.

Academic advisor for USU's Public Health program, Carl Farley, said the Occupational and Environmental Health field has incredibly high job placement, and starting salaries for bachelor's-level professionals range from $68,000 to $100,000.

Farley said they could easily double the number of program graduates and still have 100% job placement, but attracting students has always been a challenge.

"Unfortunately, it's the best kept secret. And we're trying to change that," Farley said.

He said most of their students find out about the program by word of mouth, which is how USU senior Ethan Fullmer found the program.

Fullmer is a pre-dental student from Hyde Park. He said he started as a human biology major, which is common for pre-medical students, but a student in the public health program recommended it to him.

"I talked to Farley, and it seemed like a degree with lots of career options, smaller class sizes and opportunities to get my hands dirty outside of the classroom," Fullmer said.

He said he likes that the program is so hands on, and every student has to do an internship, so they get real world experience.

The field encompasses a range of disciplines, such as industrial hygiene, ergonomics, occupational health psychology, occupational medicine, occupational health nursing, occupational safety and mining safety.

"We've had graduates work in every field from oil and gas to hospitals and technology," said program director Scott Bernhardt. "We've had students work at Intel, Amazon, Tesla, you name it."

Program lecturer John Flores said for incoming freshmen interested in STEM, public health is a good place to start.

"If they decide they don't like it, the foundation they will have from entry level classes will meet any other science requirements," Flores said.

Tori Joy, who is leading the partnership as the occupational and environmental health and safety pathways coordinator at Weber State, said students don't often learn about these types of jobs in high school or grade school.

She said they want students to learn about the field, get excited about it and enroll in one of these programs, no matter which university they choose to go to.

"The enthusiastic involvement of all four undergraduate programs -- which ostensibly compete against one another -- sends a rare and powerful message," Joy said. "It speaks to the importance of what we're doing and our shared commitment to both students and workers. The graduates of our programs literally save lives and positively impact hundreds of thousands of Utahns -- and they're rewarded with meaningful, fulfilling careers."

To learn more about any of the programs in the partnership, go to rmcoeh.com/undergraduate-degrees.